Like, like, like!
Everything is, like, about liking these days, and Lori must have thought she was likeable enough, but nobody liked her.
Instead, aside from my friend David, who attempted to cheer me up with, “My dad, who never turns down a bargain, would take the sex change just because it’s free,” my respondents implied — in posts that, to my annoyance, kept getting more “likes” — that it was beyond uncool to be whining about myself when the less fortunate would finally have insurance.Gottlieb got seriously burned, but had she really never noticed this form of liberal disciplining before? It's funny to act surprised that these people are suddenly "such humanitarians," but she's experiencing heightened awareness because $5,400 is so specific and real, and she, in her personal anger, made the mistake of thinking her "friends" (Facebook friends) were people of empathy toward individual others. But sober observation should have taught her that left-liberals expect individual self-sacrifice for the good of the group.
“The nation has been better off,” wrote one friend. “Over 33 million people who did not have insurance are now going to get it.” That’s all fine and good for “the nation,” but what about my $5,400 rate hike (after-tax dollars, I wanted to add, but dared not in this group of previously closeted Mother Teresas)? Another friend wrote, “Yes, I’m paying an extra 200 a month, but I’m okay with doing that so that others who need it can have health care.”
I was shocked. Who knew my friends were such humanitarians? Has Obamacare made it un-P.C. to be concerned by a serious burden on my family’s well-being?
It will be interesting to see how that website that works, Facebook, will process the stories of individuals burned by Obamacare. Ironically, Gottlieb is nudging Facebookers not to complain if they find themselves losers. Hers is a cautionary tale: You will not be liked. But perhaps enough stories will break through the fear of not being likeable, and a tipping point will be reached. There could be a cascade of liking not liking Obamacare.
Posts
71 comments:
She could take Carville's advice and try a crack pipe
Staggering.
No one will like you if you do not like POTUS Obama. If a tree falls in the forest and no one reports, how will you know that a tree has fallen.
POTUS Obama is the least vetted man for POTUS. He is nothing compared to what is going to happen when Hillary! will run for 2016. (She has already won by the way. She is just acting by protocol to wait till this term is over.)
There is nothing that can be done. The press has decided. It decided 2008 and 2012. So, has 2016. Except it will do better. What does that mean? The margin of Hillary! victory will be at least 2 than what Obama had in 2008 and 2012.
You heard here this first.
The numbers are deceiving, and the deceivers are using them full-tilt.
"...but what about my $5,400 rate hike (after-tax dollars, I wanted to add, but dared not in this group of previously closeted Mother Teresas)? Another friend wrote, 'Yes, I’m paying an extra 200 a month...'"
Let's see. My plan was canceled, and I'm now stuck with a 20% premium hike and a $30/$70 co-pay...but my youngsters have some kind of dental insurance, and I have a lower deductible.
Let no-one except an expert in health care costs tell you something so simple as "my costs went up" or "my costs went down". I've studied it closely and figure Obamacare will cost me something in the range of three or four thousand more dollars per year, but that's really just an informed guess from a non-expert.
Given her surprise, it must have been the first unorthodox view she had ever expressed on Facebook.
Perhaps her circle of (Facebook) friends tend toward the left wing?
At least, my experience is that many lefties love humankind but don't care much for particular instances of it.
(Which, I suppose, is how one gets from broken eggs to omelets).
Oh, and by the way, my "new" plan isn't up and running yet. Blue Cross is still working on it. And I was on the problem on Day 1, when I got the letter telling me they were killing the policy I have had for several years.
So that's another deception: how many have found new plans? How many will actually have new insurance on 1/1/14? How many company plans will die on 1/1/15 (probably tens of millions unless big, big changes are made)?
“Over 33 million people who did not have insurance are now going to get it.”
This is wrong. In fact the increases are astonishing considering how few previously uninsured are going to be covered under Obamacare policies.
This article cannot be posted on Facebook.
Any other article from that particular site works.
Does FB control the flow of information and share-ability of links within its architecture?
But sober observation should have taught her that left-liberals expect individual self-sacrifice for the good of the group.
An aside here: they expect self-sacrifice when it's convenient. Remember, these are the folks who advocate for more taxes so that the government can run more programs, rather than relying on charitable giving to local charities. They want their charitable donations to be forced on the group rather than left to individuals. Based on the charitable records of people like Al Gore, John Kerry, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama, you can see why.
Notice how none of her "friends" have offered to chip in towards her $5,400 increase. She needs a better class of friends.
What is the Difference Between Facebook and an Althouse Cafe, Other Than Scale?
Gottlieb got seriously burned, but had she really never noticed this form of liberal disciplining before?
I've noticed this in different circumstances. Rational discourse is trumped by personal stories. Once the personal takes over, that triggers a race to the working-class bottom. Authenticity wins. And the most authentic thing you can be is a martyr who came from a broken home.
No one liked it? Not a very diverse group of friends then.
My point, to circle back to the article, is that the person who was okay paying $200 more a month would rather be charitably extorted. She could've given $200/month to people before, but either couldn't be bothered, or felt it was unfair to her if no one else did the same. Either way, the concept of charity is denuded in the world of the Democrats.
We're really paying for a potentially stillborn wealth-transfer system, taking many of the inefficiencies of our previous health-delivery and adding an enormous cumbersome bureaucracy on top which may never work.
But, as long as you paint factual stars on the planetarium sky, you've controlled the 'narrative.'
The shaming happens on its own. People are like that!
***It'll be the less likely some people will ever be 'mugged by reality' the greater number of people think this way.
What I've noticed on Facebook is that my friends who were trumpeting all the FREE STUFF Obamacare was giving everyone have gone strangely quiet.
I Choose Not to Use Facebook: the Authorities Already Know Too Much. I Must Blend in with the Shadows, Be a Whisper on the Lips of the Wind. I Pay Cash to People Who Know to Keep Their Mouths Shut When Things Need to Get Done; Those Who I Follow Do Not Hear My Footsteps.
beyond uncool to be whining about myself when the less fortunate would finally have insurance.
So, they can spend their meager resources on drug abuse, and tattoos.
She needs new friends.
The many millions of uninsured who the president claimed will now have health insurance, Is another one of the presidents lies.
If someone as simple as myself, who holds no degree in the healthcare field, psychology, or the such, am a careful enough observer of human behavior to know that the same people that were using the emergency room before Obama care will still be using the emergency room after Obama care, then the professionals in the field knew.
Insuring you and your families healthcare is not a mater of money, it's a mater of responsibility.
Even low skilled workers who care about their families future are motivated enough to find, and keep a job that provides medical benefits. This issue has never been about providing healthcare, it's always been about creating another revenue stream which the government can use to "help" citizens who can't, or won't be responsible for themselves.
I never post anything remotely political on facebook. Sometimes I'll start to, but then I'll erase it.
None of my friends want to see that.
They prefer my acerbic and witty observations on the banality of life.
I Follow the Tethers Those Above Ground Don't Bother to See. Several of These Tethers Pass Through the Althouse Site for Unspecified Reasons: I Will Keep You Informed.
If they can't find the estimated 12 million +/- illegal aliens in this country, how do they expect to find the 33 million "uninsured" and force them to take out medical insurance; a totally strange concept to most of them?
The shaming continues for poor Lori in the comments beneath her article on the NYT. "The Greater Good" seems to have taken on religious importance.
“Over 33 million people who did not have insurance are now going to get it.”
I refuse to be taken for a fool. I refuse to believe this after all the other lies. If any lefty pushes this talking point shame on them. That bus was missed long ago.
I hate Facebook but I have to use it.
In 2012 I set up a Facebook account to hobnob with my gay and lesbian cronies in AA/NA/other recovery movements. But I'm also a libertarian with a somewhat ambivalent but not hostile relationship with the GOP. Among gays and lesbians generally, if you're not a progressive Democrat, you're considered an evil person who consorts with the Enemy. Anytime I shared or liked anything that was even mildly critical of President Obama, I got a lot of hostile blowback from people who I thought were my friends. Such is fascism.
So I unfriended everybody and suspended the account. (In the world of Facebook, an account can't be deleted unless Facebook wants it so.)
But in April of this year, I joined a real estate investment education program (yeah, house flipping) that uses a private Facebook group for technical discussions and mutual encouragement. So, I reactivated my account. Since then, my friend ecosystem on Facebook is quite different. As of this morning I have 201 friends and 8 followers, not counting my business page, which has almost 1,300 Likes, many of which I bought to boost the profile of the page. (You can buy Likes. Check out www.fiverr.com)
I still occasionally say unkind things about ACA and our President. I've gotten one really huffy unfriending ("I am unfriending you!" on my status page) and maybe a dozen others, tracked using the free service UnFriendedYou.com . Some of my gay AA acquaintances have refriended me, but I get irritated with some who use Facebook to verbally felch our President, so I unfriend them again -- no point in provoking people I see every week in more supportive contexts.
In a way, the web is like a whorehouse. It creates a false sense of intimacy, far away from the moral scolding of your superego, to elicit behaviors that, in the end, cost you.
I Do Not Base the Knots I Unravel on the Concept of Being "Liked" or Not.
There Are Always Men Waiting in the Black Van.
May be Lori is fake, created so they can subtly propagate the propaganda point that it is all for the greater good and stop whining about your predicament. If NYT and its commenters are coming to the rescue, you know there is something fishy and rotten there.
The Black Van is Not to Be Confused with the Lovable Seventies Van.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2013/06/ten-reasons-to-live-in-van.html
She admits that she didn't like her plan and chose not to keep it:
"There was one story about people suing Anthem for not being grandfathered in after changing their policies post-2010. In fact, it was in 2011 that I altered mine, dumping maternity benefits so that I didn't have to pay for everyone else's pregnancies. Little did I know I'd end up losing my insurance and paying for everyone else's pregnancies."
But is it understood that all this talk about "lying" is bound to lead to the Lori Gottlieb's of this country getting paid the extra $5,400 a year as a premium credit for the loss of their old policy, while others not so fortunate to have been "lied to" will just have to pay the $5,400?
I do not believe leftists deserve the label liberals. Classical liberals honor the individual and desire as much personal freedom as possible for everyone. Leftists are also interested in unlimited freedom for themselves including the freedom to absolute power over other people.
The shaming process Lori is going through is what I call the mimetic process in what passes as morality on the left is developed and enforced. The left has rejected traditional Western moral values and has rejected the moral standards in Christianity or any other religion, so they are left with nothing except the momentary whims of the crowd to define moral behavior. Ultimately this type of "morality" will degenerate into tyranny. The modern religion which is most in tune with leftist tyranny is Islam, particularly the salafist variety.
It Has Been Noticed That You Have Not 'Liked" Joseph Stalin's Latest Post, Comrade...
Illuninati, but what countervailing force can stop leftism from succeeding? We used to rely on the American Dream, immigrants coming for a better life, all of us pulling together, admiring successful individuals, and the like.
I have begun to think that leftism is once again, as >100 years ago, an unstoppable force for the next few decades. What can stop this trend? Young people are stupid, old people are takers, government workers are good-for-nothings, sure, but the leftist force is strong. Mmmm, strong is the force with this generation.
"What if you bitched on Facebook about the raw deal you got under Obamacare and nobody 'liked' you?"
You need to unfriend a lot of people and get new friends. They're out there.
Facebook : home of the 21st-Century Struggle Session
So when you learn you're a big Obamacare loser don't you dare complain about it. To anyone. Eat your broccoli and shut up, or you will be ostracized by the tribe. Thanks for warning me, New York Times...
Do you think this required the coordinating phone call from the White House to the editor's desk, or is the Times experienced enough to act on it's own?
On the other hand, who complains about their finances on Facebook? Some of the lack of likes may be her friends' avoidance of a faux pas.
How do you "like" someone's story about being screwed?
My point, to circle back to the article, is that the person who was okay paying $200 more a month would rather be charitably extorted. She could've given $200/month to people before, but either couldn't be bothered, or felt it was unfair to her if no one else did the same. Either way, the concept of charity is denuded in the world of the Democrats."
Bob these are a bunch of cheap bastards who wouldn't give a dime to charity. Instead they need to be coerced to do so under the guise of taxes.
The useful fools of socialism are always surprised when they don't "get" but are forced to "give".
Bob Ellison said...
"I have begun to think that leftism is once again, as >100 years ago, an unstoppable force for the next few decades."
You may be right, but if we don't fight back there will probably be no return. Until we are willing to acknowledge that there are people among us who want absolute power over other people and who will stop at nothing to gain it, we will lose. We need to recognize that we are facing bullies of the most ferocious sort who will let nothing stand between themselves and power. The reason they hate traditional Christians so much is because Christianity gives people a higher standard of morality which is not subject to the whims of the majority.
The Russians, like Putin, have borne the brunt of the leftist scourge and have lost millions of their fellow citizens to the leftist purges. They are returning to their religious roots, not because they have had a new philosophical insight to prove that traditional Christianity is correct, but because they recognize that they need to restore genuine cultural traditions and morality to their country.
I wonder if her friends like taking it in the shorts to subsidize the plans of congress, about 40% of whom are millionaires including Obama.
Especially when the bill says they must pay for it themselves and Obama says 'nope, nope, nope, don't like that part' and he waves his magic wand because he is special and worthy of other people's sacrifice.
If they had Facebook at the time of the French Revolution, I wonder if it would have taken them more or less time to realize that the decimal week was a bad idea.
We need to recognize that we are facing bullies of the most ferocious sort who will let nothing stand between themselves and power.
How do you do that when even 'your side' is doing what they can to purge those who try to fight back? Calling them 'hobbits' and 'wacko-birds'? They fight harder against their own than they do against the tyrannical little thugs of Obama and Reid.
Other than a few, it is beginning to look like there is only one 'team' not of the people.
A large number of people don't quite understand that Obamacare insurance isn't the "insurance"--i.e. prepaid medical care--they are used to. They aren't grasping that not only will you usually pay much more, but the deductibles are huge.
Annie said:
"How do you do that when even 'your side' is doing what they can to purge those who try to fight back? Calling them 'hobbits' and 'wacko-birds'?"
Obviously, we can not rely on a political party to fight this battle. Each of us has his/her own small sphere of influence where we can try to fight for human dignity and freedom. It may not be much, but that is all we have. Because they are bullies, the left will do all they can to discredit and eliminate anyone who stands against the tide of tyranny.
Howdy, long time no see.
I believe you meant to write, "Left/liberals expect individual sacrifice from other people for the good of the group."
I'm working on a post about this at my place on Lori's loss of her doctor network. I will explain why this is a death sentence for many people. Obamacare is going to have a death toll sooner, rather than later, because medicine is not a production line.
Howdy, long time no see.
I believe you meant to write, "Left/liberals expect individual sacrifice from other people for the good of the group."
I'm working on a post about this at my place on Lori's loss of her doctor network. I will explain why this is a death sentence for many people. Obamacare is going to have a death toll sooner, rather than later, because medicine is not a production line.
I posted this before, but it's relevant here too:
Previous premium about $ 700 / mo
Previous deductibles: $ 3300 / 6600 individual / family.
New premium proposed by my carrier: about $ 1550 / mo.
New deductibles: $ $ 6500 / 13000
New co-pays $ 50 and up.
If I go that route, health insurance will be my largest single expense, followed closely by property taxes.
It's the chilling effect of the NSA. Who dares to publicly express a negative opinion about Obama these days.
@ Big Mike:
You need to unfriend a lot of people and get new friends. They're out there.
Hell, you can go to California and find them.
Californians have their doubts about healthcare law
Sixty-five percent of respondents said people wouldn't be able to afford the health insurance they'll be required to have under the law's individual mandate. Forty percent think the program will have a negative effect on what they pay for coverage, compared with 21% who expect a positive outcome.
According to the survey, 46% of registered voters expect the Affordable Care Act to be a drag on the overall economy and 34% see an economic boost. Nearly 60% think the law's new requirements will raise healthcare costs and keep businesses from hiring more workers.
There was a time back in the 60's when the left thought dropping out was a great Idea,
How come it is that now that they're in charge 50 years later they seem so intent on forcing everyone to opt in?
For lefties, it all depends on who is costing you money.
Scott Walker raised what state and local gov't employees contribute to their health insurance plans....keeping the same level of benefit = massive outrage, protests and recall elections
Obama wipes out your plan and makes you pay way more money = it's for the greater good.
OR
Those folks have plans that are not impacted (yet) by Obamacare.
Watch some state and local governments try to put their employees in the exchanges and watch these liberals howl.
Since Obamacare has increased total cost, and consists mainly of increased subsidies, while failing to provide universal insurance, it is actually a sugar pill to relieve perceptions. In the worst case it acts as a veil over a stagnant or recessive economy.
Funny, nobody seems to have mentioned that the author of the piece hadn't actually gone on the site to actually see what the costs of Obamacare would be for her. But I guess that's besides the point. It's the likes that matter.
Scott,
"But I'm also a libertarian with a somewhat ambivalent but not hostile relationship with the GOP"
It's a pretty crowded place you're at, especially if you could be talked into revising your statement to read "but not totally hostile". :-)
Maybe the public is tired of people with inadequate health insurance effectively shifting the costs of uncover medical expenses to the taxpayers.
It ain't "self-sacrifice" when someone else does it to you, either.
"The shaming process Lori is going through...."
The lack of "likes" by her friends to her post is hardly a"shaming process."
If that's how she perceives it, that's her problem for being an oversensitive fragile flower. A shaming process would be overtly insulting remarks made in response to her comment, or a concerted action by her friends to de-friend her en masse.
Which would tell me my friends are assholes.
(This also goes to the question of who these "friends" are; Facebook offers one the uniquely strange opportunity and capacity to "have" hundreds or even thousands of "friends," even though one may personally know only a relative paltry few of them If my real friends would react with insults or defriending to my making what they considered heretical remarks, I'd have to consider my taste in friends. It's not as if she's spewing racial or scatalogical invective or calls to violence.)
I'm with Henry. I had a bunch of liberal friends who were all braggy on the morning of Oct 1. But none of them have posted a word about Obamacare since then,
As for the complaints about increased expenses for health care...it proves my previous comments, (and the comments of others elsewhere) that Obamneycare is not socialized medicine or a doorway to single payer, but is a gift to the insurance companies, who are being delivered a captive audience of customers who must buy their products or be punished by the law.
The reason for this is simple: groups come to resemble their enemies, and in this regard (and many others, incidentally), the Left has come to resemble the Religious Right. As the RR shrieks about heresy ("your irreverence toward my deity", as Ambrose Bierce defined impiety), so does the Left.
Remember in Ghostbusters, when Ray Stantz fails to take Gozer's threat seriously and inadvertently brings abotu the giant marauding Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? Memo to all who supported Obamacare and got burned by it: you are Ray Stantz.
“Yes, I’m paying an extra 200 a month, but I’m okay with doing that so that others who need it can have health care.”
But is that going to happen? The CBO estimates that even with Obamacare 30 million people will not get healthcare. And the cutoff point for subsidies is if you earn about 46,000 dollars. Not exactly a rich fat cat.
So, if you're raising costs on the middle class and not in fact giving everyone healthcare why is it justified?
I like how they assume that if they raise costs that the average family can bear it, simply because the idea behind it is noble.
Liberals never think of the costs of their programs. it's all about the good intentions. Only, if I'm a middle class shlub and just had my insurance cancelled or raised, it's not exactly a good thing. So don't presume that I should just take it because you say your intentions are honorable.
Robert Cook wrote:
As for the complaints about increased expenses for health care...it proves my previous comments, (and the comments of others elsewhere) that Obamneycare is not socialized medicine or a doorway to single payer,
Medicaid is the doorway to single payer. And the majority of people who are getting insurance on the site so far are getting medicaid.
Levi Starks wrote:
There was a time back in the 60's when the left thought dropping out was a great Idea,
How come it is that now that they're in charge 50 years later they seem so intent on forcing everyone to opt in?
Because now the counter culture is the culture and the previous culture are the outsiders. Twerking is the norm, and anyone objecting to Miley Cyrus twerking is guilty of slut shaming.
The nuts are running the nut house.
This is also why speaking truth to power is so 2008. Becuase if your guy is the power, why would you speak out against your guy? It served it's purpose.
“Yes, I’m paying an extra 200 a month, but I’m okay with doing that so that others who need it can have health care.”
Ok, but a lot of people (30 million are still going to be uninsured) so how about you chip in 500 a month? 800 a month? 1200 a month?
It is for the greater good, remember.
The uncaring "smug insureds" will unsmug themselves pretty quickly when their own premiums go up.
This article -- "Even Obama can't Violate the Fundamental Laws of Politics" -- shows why you can never tell people precisely what their contribution to the "common good" will cost them. If you do, you fail. And these cancellations and premium hikes do just that.
http://pileusblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/even-obama-cant-violate-fundamental-laws-of-politics/
NYT's comments are closed, but Ms. Gottlieb has been thoroughly Emanuel Goldsteined by the commentariat. My personal favorite was one of the last comments in before they closed that blamed Fox News for giving her a platform to mouth her dissent. I didn't know Roger was moonlighting for the Op-ed page.
What is the Difference Between Facebook and an Althouse Cafe, Other Than Scale?
As the saying goes, quantity has a quality all its own.
A well-meaning do-gooder "liberal" friend who voted for BHO back in 2008 recently got a notice that her health insurance premium was jumping to a cost beyond what she can afford. Unless the exchange magically gets fixed and she's lucky enough to qualify for a substantial subsidy, her and her family will be going without health insurance, risking economic peril due to future illness.
As much fun as it would be to say "I told you so," I didn't.
And as much as I had hoped this mugging might cause her to re-examine her political choices, she recently told me that Hillary has been saying things she finds interesting.
Oh well, some people never learn. Some are just incapable. Some don't want to believe they were lied to, because that would mean they allowed themselves to be fooled, that the TEA Party was right, that Ted Cruz might have saved them. That's just too much cognitive dissonance for most people; denial is far more comfortable.
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